Proposed legislation aims to ban loot boxes in the United States

Janis Cole

A newly announced bill that would ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in "games played by minors", if it were passed could spell trouble for popular games like Apex Legends and Overwatch. Along with outlawing loot boxes, these video games also would be banned from offering "pay to win" schemes, where players must spend money to access additional content or gain digital advantages over rival players. Although the exact targeting of the bill is unknown, Hawley says that it is looking at games designed for kids and those "whose developers knowingly allow minor players to engage in microtransactions".

The bill will also target PC and console games, or anything with "compulsive microtransactions" that under-18s can play. No matter this business model's advantages to the tech industry, one thing is clear: "there is no excuse for exploiting children through such practices", Sen.

Loot boxes and microtransactions have become a hot button issue over the past five years or so, as a practice once curtailed only for the mobile market has made its way into more and more into more "hardcore" video games. How will children be walled off from making purchases in Mature rated games? But, some fear they're too much like gambling and are exploitative.

Stanley Pierre-Louis, acting president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, the lobbying group for the video game industry, said on Wednesday that parents already have controls to limit or prohibit in-game purchases. Lawmakers in Hawaii introduced four bills in February 2018 that aim to regulate the sale of video games containing loot boxes. Or any game that's played by children?

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 triggered an outcry over loot boxes.

USA policymakers also have explored new regulation: States, including California and Washington, have considered their own legislation in recent years, though none of the proposals has become law. The other two require publishers to clearly label games that have loot boxes and disclose the odds of winning items. I would imagine PC and console gaming will largely remain the same, with a few shakeups in the FPS and sports genres, though mobile is an entirely different story since the majority of high-profile release on the Play Store employ numerous abusive practices the proposed bill would regulate into nonexistence.

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